Rep. Barney Frank: Is There an Antidote to the Republican Amnesia?

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/03/is_there_an_antidote_to_the_re.html


Is There an Antidote to the Republican Amnesia?
By Barney Frank


Memory eventually fails us all, but apparently the decline strikes one party far more than the other.

In recent weeks, my friends across the aisle have expended a lot of breath proclaiming that the Democrats caused the present financial crisis by failing to pass legislation to regulate financial services companies in the years 1995 through 2006.

There is only small one problem with this story -- throughout this entire period the Republicans were in complete charge of the House and for the most critical years they controlled the House, the Senate, and the Presidency.

In the House of Representatives, the majority party has almost unlimited power over the minority party. The majority party owns the committee chairmanships; it controls what bills come to a vote; and it is under no obligation to consider the ideas of the beleaguered minority. When the Republicans were in the majority they ruled with an iron first; it is no accident that Tom DeLay was known as "The Hammer."

That is why I find it particularly flattering the Republicans now claim that in the years 1995 to 2006 I personally possessed supernatural powers which enabled me to force mighty Republican leaders to do my bidding. Choose your comic book hero -- I was all of them.

I wish I had the power to force the Republican leadership to do my bidding! If I had had that power, I would have used it to block the impeachment of Bill Clinton, to stop the war in Iraq, to prevent large tax cuts for the extremely wealthy, and to stop government intervention into the private life of Terri Schiavo. Yet that power eluded me, and I was unable to stop those things.

snip//

The true tragedy is that this is more than a game. Millions of Americans are now unemployed and millions of others have lost their homes. Well-run businesses have been shaken to their foundations, and the stock market has taken a plunge not seen since the Great Depression. Many people facing retirement have found their savings have been cut in half.

They say that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. But the collective amnesia of the Republican Party will not only hurt its members -- it threatens to hurt all of us. Is there a cure for amnesia? We can only hope.

I stop to hear when Barney is on TV. He's not stupid.

From the pulpit of the Church of Reality...

Sean Hannity told me that he's the cause of all of this; Barney, and Chris Dodd and Maxine Waters.

Sean said it and he's a Great American so... :shrug:

because I love me some Barney Frank

Are they called the Fourth Estate?

I am sure there is plenty of material out there.

Consistently one of my favorite politicians. :rofl:

K&R for good old Barney! :kick:

the fact is government deregulation has been a cornerstone of their political agenda since Ronald Reagan was President. That and taxcuts. What they've delivered is a nation with a multi-trillion debt and a financial sector imploded by their greed, facilitated by a lack of government oversight. We will be decades in getting our country restored to reasonable financial heath.

What was the question again?

:rofl:

an MSM that practices responsible journalism and a citizenry with a longer attention span than a clam.